Much has been written about the French Paradox[1] but my belief is that it's not so much about the individual ingredients' metabolic properties as it is about the art of not only crafting but appreciating meals. Savor each bite. Chew and eat slowly. Think about the food you are eating instead of trying to ignore it.
An Italian friend had once remarqued to me about his traditional family dinners where, not only was there an amazing spread of food, people would spend almost all the meal talking about the food. I have to confess doing the same in many cases.
I believe this is the biggest problem with American diets: we try to abstract away the taste and focus on a feature list (anti oxydants, low-carb, high-this, low-that) and all the while rely on poor shortcuts for actual taste. Those poor shortcuts are of course sugar, salt and fat. My French background earns me a perception that I'm a food snob. Perhaps that's true. But things don't need to have fancy preparations to be appreciated, in fact less processing is usually more. I can appreciate the favor of unseasoned steamed rice at a Japanese restaurant, or fresh tomatoes from the garden with no seasoning.
And yes, over time, you will start craving higher-quality ingredients, for the simple reason you can taste the difference. But again, it's a matter of being appreciative, whether it's an elaborate preparation or a simple unseasoned ingredient.